Sippy Cups and Peanut butter!

Outside of nap/bedtime schedules, these have been my biggest stressors with J&K :-) And of course we can now add potty training to that list *sigh*

Gavin was not easy to take a sippy. We tried every spout cup on the market...seriously, I had ALOT! He didn't like any of them. HMPH Then one day we were out to eat and the server brough him a drink with a lid and straw, he surprised us both by drinking from it! I was so excited I immediately ran out to buy straw sippy cups! Then came the challenge of getting him to drink milk, oh vey :-P

So with J&K, I just started out with the straw sippy! I've been giving it to them for about 3 months here and there, with more consistency the past 2 or 3 weeks and low and behold...THEY GOT IT!!! Took Jakob a little longer but yesterday he had it down AND they are both liking milk :-) Seriously, I love being a mom the 2nd time around  :-)

And then this morning Gavin was having a snack with his Ritz Peanut Butter Crackers and being the awesome big brother that he is decided to share with Jakob :-) To say he liked them is an understatement...I don't think I have seen him eat anything with such excitement!!!

I have been meaning to try them with peanut butter so I am not worried, just need to watch him for reaction. Gavin had peanut butter close to a year as well.

J&K are doing so much and into so much but I am saving all those details for their 11 MONTH blog post....good lord! It feels like a dream they are a month away from a year...I am super impressed with Marcin and I making it this far and we still retain most of our sanity :-)

Gavin makes me laugh!

We went to Toys R' Us today (aka The Blue Store...it is blue on the outside!), just to return a gift and also see if there was anything Gavin wanted to use his gift card on. We spent a majority of our time in the music aisle, he wanted everything! Harps, accordions, ukele, guitar and DRUMS!!!! He was very insistent on this drum set for kids. It was cute but I told him maybe Santa can bring it to him for Christmas...it's not too early to start that is it?! hehe

So I thought that was the end of it. Nope! Gavin did pick up a cute little rollable piano, see him jamming out below....

He MUST wear his old baby sunglasses (the ones with the band around the head lol) to play the piano :-P

So he gets finished and tells us he wants to play the drums at the blue store. I explain again that not today but maybe for Christmas. He gets very serious and tells us that, 'I want the big drum, snare drum and 2 cymbals from the big blue store!"

um how does this kid know what a snare drum is? lol

The Circus is coming....

....to our house in September, hehe!! I was racking my brain to think of a fun theme for J&K's first birthday party in September. I thought about football since the season will be starting but it didn't sound like much fun. And then I thought about just picking a couple colors and centering things around that, but that didn't sound like a lot of fun either.

Then I was looking through some ideas online and my friend also mentioned it, a circus party would be perfect! Marcin is always referring to us as 'the circus' when we go out in public :-P We aren't that bad, geez babe :-P We do get a lot of comments about 'triple trouble' or 'you have your hands full' or 'oh my..THREE boys'...the usual comments that we get sick of hearing. Or we hear the comments as people pass by..that is my favorite. Anyways little did I know how much fun a circus theme would be!!!

For the past week I have been looking at things....thinking of ideas for snacks, food, desserts, decor. This could really take on a life of its own so I am trying to keep it somewhat simple :-)

But look at all this cute stuff! I love it all! So much fun!
http://www.hwtm.com/index.cfm?page=albums/view_album&albumid=730&categoryid=37#comments

http://pisforparty.blogspot.com/search/label/circus%2Fcarnival

http://blowoutparty.com/blog/2011/06/aqua-and-orange-circus-elephant-birthday/

I will apologize in advance to those who are bringing the kids Gavin's age....there will be a lot of sugar at this party so prepare yourselves :-)

Potty Training attempt = FAIL!

I didn't expect it to work....I was secretly hoping it would but in retrospect Gavin is just too hard headed and strongly dislikes to try new things, unless it is a sweet, sugary food or chip :-P I think I had a pretty good plan in place that in theory sounded great, I plan to try it again when Marcin can stay home to help me. I cannot do it by myself. It is close to impossible and beyond frustrating to keep an eye on Gavin every second while taking care of J&K. Gavin would take the opportunities I was changing or feeding babies to run, hide and use bathroom, ugh!

Gavin had his 3 year appt this a week ago. He weighs 38lbs and is 40inches tall!!! Our big boy has grown a lot! Only gained 2 lbs since his 2 year appt but grew 4 inches!!! The doc was asking me how we were handling Gavin's behavior, I replied with a lot of patience and drinks when kids are in bed, hehe He didn't think this was too funny but then again his jokes are not funny either:-P He proceeded to tell me that Gavin is the personality type who is stubborn and determined to have his way. Doc pretty much nailed it...that is Gavin. Normally I might take offense to this but he is right. He also explained that it was important for Marcin and I to be very rigid and consistent with disciplining Gavin because he will take advantage of finding someone to give him what he wants :-) Um yes...he already does this, if I say no, then he asked Marcin and vice versa.

{{{picking up where I left off on this post last week!}}}

For the past couple of weeks I have been trying to be more patient with Gavin, telling him that if he chooses to do something he is not supposed to, I then explain what the consequence will be. Occasionally I can see him stop to think about this....sometimes he makes the right choice, others time he doesn't. And that is ok, it is all about learning and pushing limits right? I get that, we have all done it. It is just stressful some days when J&K are crawling around or crying :-P Gavin was also drinking more sugary drinks than he needed to...those have also been decreased. He can have 2 per day but I have been trying to give him none after his afternoon nap. The child does not need any extra energy :-P

Gavin's Birthday Weekend!

It is safe to say that he had a great weekend....his lack of sleep and grumpiness is proof of that LOL

Friday we headed to Hulabaloo with another friend and he had a blast! Not to mention we were the only one there, even better!!! It isn't too difficult to keep up with the older kids there but less stressful when you hear the air gun shooting and know it has to be one of your kids :-)

Saturday Gavin had his friend party at the Itty Bitty Playroom in Middletown. Our thinking...or I guess Marcin would probably say my thinking was that since J&K's birthday is only a couple months after Gavin's, I wanted to break it up a bit. Two parties at our house within 2 months seemed too similiar. So we (I) thought we would try a party at an indoor place. Overall, the kids had a blast!!! Gavin did not want us to sing Happy Birthday. I talked him into it by bribing him with a cupcake but he was not having it! Interesting....But the kids played hard and I think it is safe to assume that everyone got a full night's sleep out of the older kids :-) I am not going to bore you with details of my thoughts on the party.....the important thing is that the kids had fun. However, we won't be doing another party there. I think we stick with the house for a while. The kids would have had as much here with a pool, bounce house and the play set :-)



CHEESE!



 

J&K had fun too!! they were eating some pizza...they ate the entire party!


Sunday was BUSY!!!! I thought I had most of the cooking and things done for the little party but apparently I misjudged things because I was in the kitchen all morning! And then got kids down for nap and ran out to get ice cream cake and a couple other things. Whew...but we did it :-) And everyone seemed to enjoy themselves :-)

And as you might have guessed, we were not allowed to sing Happy Birthday today either! I got out the cake and Gavin immediately started telling me "no singing mommy!" "NO SINGING!" geez...ok I get it. So we managed to get him to at least agree to blow out the candles with his Godmother Kalina. I made some cupcakes...nothing special but I thought they turned out cute,



Gavin wasn't able to fall asleep until almost 10:00 p.m.! He was just too excited and hopped up on sugar from his ice cream cake and cupcakes.....now that's a good birthday, don't you agree?!

aw our sweet birthday boy!

He loves his new bike!



and his father...what can I say? I WAS warned :-P This is Gavin's cape by the way......



We are very blessed to have so many wonderful friends and family! I wish we could invite everyone but we have found in the past that the larger parties were just too overwhelming for us all : / Add two cute little 10.5 months old and whew!

I am still exhausted today! But excited to get started on J&K's party.....don't know what to do. They obviously aren't into anything special right now but balls and wheels :-P I need to get creative!

I need to go to bed....I have a long day of potty training tomorrow :-P

Potty 'training' Day 1

It sucks. Plain and simple...I thought I knew how hard it would be, I had no idea. Sort of like you think you know what to expect while you are pregnant and then baby gets here and you realize you had no idea, yeah...something like that. At least for us. I have decided that while Gavin is a great kid, he is also very stubborn and set in his ways. Not only that but why fix it if it's not broken...diapers are working just fine for him :-P

We prepped him all week last week that after his birthday party when he turns 3 years old, diapers were going bye bye. So this morning he woke up, used the potty and put on underwear. Marcin took a big bag of diapers to work for the babies that needed them. And ::patting myself on the back:: I stuck to it all day, no diapers. It was a long day but darn it, I did it!

The morning was pretty good....he used potty 3 times before accident. The 2nd accident he was not happy to be wet, this was progress. So I was feeling good about things. My goal was to stay away from anything diaper related, including pull ups. Gavin thinks they are swim diapers...so I figured this was another added reason to stay away. My friend had told me about SuperUndies. Originally I purchased these expensive things to take with us on long car trips (we had planned to start PT'ing before our vaca but decided against it)BUT when I was trying to figure out how to avoid pull-ups, I remembered I had these and they would be PERFECT for naps and bedtime. Not a diaper and look like underwear but are a little absorbent and I won't be changing sheets a million times a week :-P

While the SuperUndies weren't cheap, I have a feeling we would have spent just as much if not more on Pull- Ups, those are not cheap either!
http://www.superundies.com/p-45-nighttime-undies.aspx

After nap time was a nightmare. Gavin was running to hide to pee or poop : / And freaking out every time I put him on potty. Screaming, crying, yelling, throwing soap....you name it. It wasn't pretty. I cried...he cried. Super frustrating....am I doing the right thing? Am I pushing this too soon? Will he have bed wetting issues later on? Is this going to continue until he decides he is 'ready?' do kids really just wake up and decide they want to use the potty?

He was refusing to use the potty at all and no longer cared that his underwear was wet. hmmm....this appeared to be a step back from the morning. Then I guess his bladder couldn't take it anymore and he almost made it to the potty....big mess on the floor by the potty but it was the right room. I view this as progress. (hey...I am know I am grabbing at strings here, but give me a little. It's been a long day!)

He gets one M&M for trying/sitting on potty. And FOUR if he pees or poops on potty.

Will this work? I have no idea. But I hate to tell Gavin, I am just as stubborn as he is so we are going to continue this for the week. If by Friday we have no progress, back to diapers we go. Hopefully it won't come to that but I can't handle this, take care of J&K and stay sane....it just wouldn't work :-P

I had an entire cute blog about his birthday but I will have to post that later, I started it but not finished. I needed to get this out. It has been a long, frustrating day but we are not giving up.....yet :-) Wish us luck and please pray for me from 8-5 while Marcin is not home LOL

Good thing the bar is stocked up pretty well.... I am going to need it!

Like Father, Like Son....

Sometimes I swear Marcin and Gavin are two peas in a pod...these pictures were not taken on the same day. I took Gavin's first and then a few days later I came into the family room to find Marcin doing almost the exact same thing. Gotta love a dad who gets down on their kids level....although Gavin was not thrilled to find that 'his tigers' were on Marcin's head. Those are Gavin's coveted blankies....I started with one and had tiger #2 as a back up but then he discovered my hiding spot and I couldn't get away with putting one away anymore.

This is typical of Gavin when he wakes up from nap, he will either watch Caillou or lately he has been into the The Fresh Beat Band. This is probably the only time during the day, besides when he is sleeping, that he sits STILL!

And his silly Tata,

Your welcome honey! I knew you wouldn't mind me sharing this pic with everyone, hehe!

Our baby boy is turning 3!!!

His actual birthday is Sunday July 17. I still can't believe it...I felt the same when he turned 1 and 2, now he is going to be 3. He is such a great kid, so much fun and FULL of energy. I have hope that one day he will sit still lol But then again, isn't that what boys do? From my experience...yes!

Gavin is such a little person that we can have conversations with and he says the funniest things! And he starts 3 year old preschool in September! I hope he enjoys it, I think he will. He loves making new friends. I will miss him most days but it will be nice to be able to spend some time with J&K and only run errands with 2 children in two instead of 3 :-P

Today we are having a small friend party for him at an indoor play place. I wasn't really sure what 'theme' to go with but it became a pirate theme :-) Which works because Gavin really likes the pirate show on Disney..I don't know name, Jake and something.... So the play place will have costumes for all the older kids to dress up. And we got Gavin his birthday shirt which turned out SO cute. This etsy seller made his shirt last year as well. I also ordered Jakob and Kaleb's shirts from her, she does a fabulous job, reasonably priced and was able to accomodate my short time frame for Gavin's :-)

http://www.etsy.com/shop/gdavenport?ref=seller_info

Here is a pic of Gavin's shirt, I love it!!!

And then tomorrow we are having another small family and a few friends party at the house. Nothing big but of course plenty of yummy food! Yummy food is a must!

It will be a fun weekend!!! And then it will be time to start planning Jakob and Kaleb's first birthday...again, how is that possible?! I just got their invites in the mail yesterday, they turned out so well!  I guess I need to come up with a theme but really...they aren't into much but balls and getting in everything! I wonder how I can combine those two things, hehe!

have a great weekend everyone!

Day 8....

Weight Loss = 1.5lbs

This is my weekly 'goal' so I will take it. It doesn't seem like much but it's a start!

I had a cheat day yesterday and we ordered Papa John's for dinner, YUMMY! I still only had 2 slices....ok really 2.5 slices, I had half of Gavin's :-P Ever since I moved to Delaware everyone talks about Grotto's, Season's and Pat's pizza as being fabulous pizza...I am not a fan. PaPa John's anyday...that garlic sauce is fantastic AND I didn't have any yesterday. I that must count for something right?!

My friend suggested I use Myfitnesspal.com to keep track of things and I love it! It is a free app on my phone (which I said I didn't need...who knew?! But that is another story for later). It is great for keeping track of my calories and exercise. And at the end of every day when I finish logging for the day, it tells me what I should weigh in 5 weeks if I continue that trend. I like that!

I am making sure to eat throughout the day. Usually I forget and then eat portions that are too large. So I have been having breakfast, snack, lunch, snack and dinner. Occasionally I will have snack before bed...I cannot sleep if I am hungry. It just doesn't work for me.

Exercise (Besides chasing after THREE mobile children) = 30 minutes speed walking WITH 4lb weights in hand.

My muscles hurt...I LOVE that feeling when my muscles hurt. It reminds that they are still there LOL Next week I plan to start adding in some walking lunges and more weight training. I plan to start out slow because I am very much out of shape :-( More muscle = more fat burned when I am just sitting still. Can't beat that!

So my phone story..last month my phone kept freezing or turning off for no reason. It is Verizon and the phone was a couple years old so it was time for a new one. BUT I did not want the $30 data package plan. I kept saying I would not use my phone for all that stuff, I didn't need it! Ideally Verizon should let the customer choose the size of the data plan they want. Not everyone wants to use the full capability of a smart phone. So I initially bought a phone that had a $10 data package plan thinking that would be fine. And the phone was fine except it did not have video. I take a lot of short videos of the kids so I NEEDED video. Marcin suggested I look at bill to see if we were using all of our minutes because he didn't think we were. Sure enough, I checked... we were using about 500 of our 1400 minute plan. GEEZ! So I decreased plan and got a 'smart' phone. A friend of mine told me when I was complaining about the data package that I would use it if I had it. I said no..I don't need all that. She was right :-P I really like some of the apps and games. Gavin can play the games and it takes great videos.

I am still a little perturbed about the whole data package thing though.

Mom of the Year! Yep...that's me :-P

I really needed to clean out my car from our vacation road trip...there were crumbs, sands, etc. in there. Yesterday I planned to vacuum and wipe everything down while J&K napped. Gavin likes to piddle around the garage, cut grass with his lawn mower or play with the radio in the car. AND burn some of his crazy amount of energy....this is crucial! lol

Please envision....I had all the swagger wagon doors open, finished vacuuming and I was between the 2nd and 3rd rows cleaning. The swagger wagon doesn't use a key in the ignition, it is a push button. Gavin has learned that if he pushes the button once, the radio will come on. You have to press the brake pedal and the start button to start the engine. So the car wasn't fully started, just the radio on. Gavin was in the front seat changing the radio stations and opening/closing the sunroof. Then I looked up to check on him and it felt like the car was moving.

{If you haven't been to our house, the driveway has a slight slope going down.}

Sure enough....the car is moving forward. Somehow within 2-3 seconds Gavin managed to push the brake pedal AND shift the car into neutral. And as you can imagine, the swagger wagon was ROLLING DOWN OUR DRIVEWAY AND INTO THE STREET! I am scrambling to get to the front of the car to get the brake or emergency brake while Gavin is scared to death because he knows this shouldn't be happening. At the same time, various scenarios are playing out in my head and I am praying there is no car coming down the street. I know the street is level and thankfully the driveway across the street from us goes up at an incline so the swagger wagon had its fun and stopped.

OH MY GOD! I had a mild heart attack and REALLY needed a drink at 9:30 in the morning.

My heart is racing just writing this. When I think of all the other ways this could have gone, I thank God that we were kept safe and nothing happened to Gavin and myself. And the car too....although I am little upset with the swagger wagon. With all that technology in that car and it couldn't tell difference who was in drivers seat?! lol just kidding...it doesn't do that :-P

So needless to say, Gavin will NOT allowed in the front of the car anymore. When he was 1.5 he got locked in Marcin's work car while we were cleaning snow off the car. I was also terrified then and prepared to break the window to get in and get him out! Luckily, after telling Gavin ( who is pleased as punch sitting in the car pushing all buttons, looking up at smiling at us and waving) a million times to push the unlock button.....he accidentally pushed the button to roll window down and I shoved my hand in there so fast and unlocked the car :-P

Gavin LOVES to play in the car.....it is a dream come true for him because there are 'butts' (buttons) galore, lights. There should be a kid car museum because Gavin would want to go there everyday!

I think I might go have that drink now after reliving this experience......

Reason # 1,257 I love Chik Fila :-D

The Chik Fil A by our house has an indoor play place and it is small enough (and safe!) that I can take all the boys there with no stress = one of our favorite places!

I have always loved this place, the chicken sandwiches, polynesian sauce, service, cleanliness and then the one by us opened with an A/C indoor play place.....perfect for hot/humid or cold days.

Today we all went because Gavin has been asking all week to go inside at 'Red Chicken' so he can go down the slide and eat :-) So we did.

As I am unloading everyone out of car (10minute process :-P), the manage walks up to me and says he wants to get my opinion on something. He goes onto to explain a new idea/service they are starting on Monday called "Mom Valet." He wanted to know if it something I would be interesting in and if I would use it.

Mom Valet would be where I can drive thru, place my order, pay for my order AND tell them how many in our party, how many high chairs I need AND THEN....they will prepare a table for us. I can park car, come inside and it will all be set up.

THIS IS FABULOUS!!!! Seriously....anything that makes life easier when going out with the boys is wonderful in my book!!!! I won't have to take the double stroller inside (Which takes up so much space and maneuvering) and I know J&K will be happier to be able to sit in high chair so they can see everything.

Now if only the Post Office and grocery stores would have drive thru options, my world would be perfect LOL Seriously....wouldn't it be wonderful to just drive thru at the grocery store when you just need a gallon of milk? ESPECIALLY during winter when it is cold/rainy/snowy and you don't want to get everyone out of the car?

Day 3 for my healthy habits goal:

Not much to report. Obviously no weight loss in 3 days :-P I have been making better food choices, smaller portions and eating more often during day.

Yesterday I had half english muffin for breakfast, a slice of turkey bacon, one egg and a banana. Snack was a protein shake (eh), lunch was half turkey sandwich with the Special K cracker chips (They aren't bad, they serve purpose of satisfying my crunchy, salt snack), cherries and low fat cheese stick for afternoon snack. One small taco for dinner....honestly not satisfying at all. I was hungry an hour later. Next time will have to add more veggies. So after kids were in bed, I had couple pieces of pork tenderloin and some broccoli.

Off to a good start, don't you think?

And today....I had ONE french fry at chik fila. Don't judge.....that was a lot of self control!

All the boys are in bed, so I am going to get on treadmill. I was looking back at my old work out routine book (yes I used to keep a log and write down my work outs/weights/reps, etc.) and my goodness I was so strong, for me. Not compared to my super strong husband who can bench press his body weight ::hi honey::
I can't believe I could do some of that stuff....I really want to get there again.

I'm in trouble....

All along I have said that I really didn't want to put the baby gates back up....guess what? I must have been thinking with a screw loose....the gates are going up! Not today and not this week but soon!

It will be less stressful to know that J&K are in the same vinicity and Gavin cannot entice them into places they don't belong, such as this I walked over too this morning....I guess on the positive side, I can thankful all 3 boys were in one place? :-)

Day 1.....

 I need someone or a blog to hold me responsible for not taking good care of myself. And feel free to call me out if you see me putting anything bad in my mouth to eat. The only two exceptions for this are the boy's birthday parties, those I can eat what I want :-)

I have got to get serious with this weight loss and put forth my full effort instead of 50%. After seeing the pictures from our vacation, it hit me. This is NOT what I am happy with, period. The most frustrating part is I know what I need to do, I know about portions sizes and healthy eating ( I minored in Health!!!)  but my days go by in a blur and the next thing I know I am going to sleep for the night. I don't make the healthiest choices because I forget to eat or I need something quickly. Which neither is good for metabolism...I  need to eat small healthy snacks/meals throughout day to keep my metabolism going. I am not doing that.

And I am not exercising like I should. Again I know what to do, RRRR!!!!!! I have the weights and treadmill downstairs, no excuse ( well besides 4 boys to take care of) BUT I need to take care of me and feel good about me! Not only that but when I was working out consistently, I had MORE energy! If you know Gavin, this is crucial to have! LOL and with two more right behind him...I need all the energy I can get! And I know once I get in the habit, it will just become part of my daily routine...like it used to be.

Even knowing all this....it is still hard. Life gets in the way. I would rather play with the boys, hang out with Marcin or something else comes up. Regardless, I need to do this.

So this is officially day 1. If you want to join me and be my work out buddy or healthy eating buddy to share good food ideas...that would be great! I need all the help I can get!

I plan to schedule the tummy tuck for february, that gives me 7 months to get the rest of my body in better shape not only for me but to prepare for the surgery.

Marcin and I were figuring out when I could get on treadmill during week. Yes this simple activity takes advance planning at our house. I went for a stroller walk this morning with J&K while Marcin stayed at house with Gavin and got ready for work. I need to start making my lunch and snacks in advance so they are there and ready for me to grab. I need to drink more water. I don't drink alot during day...again I get busy and forget :-P

My goal for this month is 5lbs. That is not huge but a good starting point. If I lose 5 pounds a month in next 7 months, that would put me at minus 35lbs. That would be good :-) HELP ME!!!!!

Ciocia~ you can help me by coming to get this ice cream cake OUT of the freezer!!!!! lol

Happy 10 months to J&K!! And Happy 4th!!

{I started this over weekend but no time to finish LOL}

Jakob and Kaleb are 10 months...I ask again, how is that possible?! They are so funny with their developing personalities. And we love to watch all 3 boys interact together, they are the cutest and challenging at the same time:-D

Jakob officially started crawling July 3 which is funny to me because Gavin took his first steps on July 4, hehe! And Jakob figured it out a lot faster than Kaleb! Kaleb was rocking on all 4's for at least a month before he started moving limbs, even now he does a lazy crawl moving just one leg and dragging the other :-P The week before our vacation Jakob figured out how to get on all 4's. Then suddenly his is putting himself in sitting position and then we get back and he was crawling! AH! He is so cute though! We love it!
He is also trying to pull himself up. He has really strong legs and is pretty steady if we put him somewhere to stand but it seems like his top half of his body isn't as strong as the bottom half.
Jakob loves to laugh and bury his face in your shoulder. Changing that child's clothes is like trying to dress to a greased pig....he wiggles all.over.the.place!
He is babbling and trying new foods all the time! We lovingly call him 'the bird' because he already has his mouth open before I have the food ready! We aren't sure where he puts it all but he eats ALOT!
I wonder if Jakob will be the first to walk?!

Kaleb has become quite the mommy's boy! If he doesn't see me, he is ok. But if he sees me, he will drop what he is doing, crawl over (while whining) until he get to my legs and then will pull himself up or put up his arms to pick him up. SO CUTE!!!! well not by the end of the day when Gavin is running wild and jakob needs me too but actually...yes cute all the same :-)
Kaleb is good at pulling himself up! But he isn't quite sure how to get back down and he lets us know when he is ready to get back down lol
He likes to say 'mamamamamam' or 'babababab' but not with any meaning. Marcin is trying hard with both to get them to say 'dada' or 'tata' hehe

J&K together are hilarious! If Kaleb is sitting in front or beside Jakob, Jakob will reach out and pull Kaleb down and try to take a bit out of whatever is closest LOL And then Gavin gets in the mix and they are all so silly! I can't wait for them all to really play together! I am sure there will be some fighting but there will be good moments as well!

For the 4th of July, I asked my dad and Gay to bring some fireworks to the beach so we would have some for our house. We have never taken Gavin to see fireworks...it just hasn't worked out and honestly, I don't want to deal with a cranky child that late at night :-P So we had family over for more yummy food, geez :-) And did a few fireworks. Gavin was good with the Snap n Pops, sprinklers ( aka Sparklers), smoke bombs, snakes and party poppers. But once the larger came out that whistled and cracked really loudly....he ran in the house crying. Needless to say, I would guess we haven't missed anything by not taking him to see fireworks since he was terrified last night :-P And the poor kid stepped on a couple of hot embers from the sprinklers and burnt his foot :-( Lesson learned: no sprinklers without shoes on.
He did enjoy watching them from the window INSIDE the house. But then Marcin decided it was best to put them away because they were hitting our house and neighbors (who thankfully didn't notice hehe). Jakob and Kaleb slept through it all (thank goodness for noise machines turned to full blast!)

we had a great day with everyone!!!

We're baaacckkkk :-D

We had an amazing vacation in Virginia Beach!!! It was such a fun crowd and everyone seemed to have a great time as well!!! It was the 'Circus" ( Marcin likes to call us that...we aren't that crazy, geez!), my dad, Gay, Katherine, Molly, Joy (Gay's Sister), her husband Ed and son Thomas. And our friend Kathleen and Steve with their kids Zach (Gavin's age) and Mackenzie, 15 months.

The boys did a fabulous job in the car on the way there. I was very afraid that it was going to be crazy but as usual, I had nothing to worry about. They were great!!! Gavin had his DVD's in the front and J&K had their DVD's in the back, lol

We did alot but we also did nothing which was good for a change :-) Plus we had a few extra people to help with the kids which was GREAT to get a little break for a bit !!! The first couple of days Gavin wanted nothing to do with the beach or pool. We weren't sure what to do since we were there for the beach and well the pool :-P Not to mention he was extremely excited to be somewhere new with everyone...he just didn't know which way to go lol

The house was in a great location...right on the beach. I didn't realize it was that close to the beach!! It was great to be able to get all the kids in bed and sit out on the deck listening to the ocean. I love that!

The weather was gorgeous all week! One morning it was a little cloudy so a few of us went to the aquarium and that was fun. It was full of 'speakas' and 'butts' (buttons). Oh and there were some fish and sharks also but really....do you think Gavin cared about that stuff? nope :-P

Marcin, myself, Kathleen and Steve got a date night! Being that we weren't that familiar with the area, we just picked a spot in Sandbridge, a Tiki Bar but it wasn't very tikish lol The customers were interesting but they had alcohol and dessert, so I was happy. A little disappointed in the locals though.....a big storm was coming with pretty strong winds. We were sitting outside....suddenly everyone was running around crazy, cars taking off out of the parking lot, craziness!!! We thought maybe we were missing something but this seems to be normal behavior for the locals in that area....go figure LOL We thought that if it was something serious they would let us know since we were the only ones outside but they didn't. Not very good southern hospitality, hmph

Finally on Thursday, Gavin decided he LOVED the pool and beach. He could not get enough of it! I am pretty sure he was out the entire day with the exception of napping:-) So of course towards the end of teh vacation he decides he likes it:-P

I think everyone got their Gavin, Jakob and Kaleb time in. I hope Pop Pop and Gigi are able to get up in the morning without their morning wake up call from Gavin first thing in the morning. Aunt Molly and Aunt Kiki are now known as Mollykiki thanks to Gavin :-D

And the food....my goodness! As usual, we ate good.....real GOOD!!! hehe I made breakfast in morning since I was first one up at 6 a.m. ::yawn:: Lunch was a free for all but dinner.....YUMMY!!!! We had pizza first night. Then we had beef tenderloin, boston butt bbq, drunk chicken, lasagna, squash casserole, corn pudding, roasted potatoes, fresh green beans, MMMMMM!!!!!! And plenty of desserts for those of us with sweet tooths...which seemed to be about everyone :-)

The ride back wasn't quite as pleasant as the ride there but still we made it :-) J&K weren't too happy in their carseats. I really don't think they are feeling well whether from teething or something else.

We really liked the Sandbridge area and hope to go back one day. It is perfect for families! The beach was not crowded at all and it was just families. It was peaceful and had a safe feeling. It is about 20-30 minutes south of Virginia Beach. And it is was just a 5 hour drive for us, not bad at all.

Here are a few of my favorite pics if you didn't see them on facebook :-)